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Arabic Radio from Serbia

Arabian music are songs from the Arabian speaking population in the Near- and Middle East, what’s called the ‘Mashriq’ and North-Africa which is called the ‘Maghreb’. Just like in the European music, the Arabic music can be divided into 3 categories: classic music, popular music and folk music.
The most important music history source from the first centuries for the Arabian population is the KItab al-Aghani that was compiled by Abu-I Faraj al-Isfahani. In the Kitab-al-aghani they found that in the 6th en 7th century there existed a genre called ‘Hida’. While in the big cities like Mekka and Medina de ‘Sinad’ and ‘Hazaj’ were the most popular genres. The Sinad was a more serious music genre, while Hazaj a more happy genre was. In the 9th century a special Andalusian tradition emerged in Spain. At that time there originated a split into Oriental and Western music traditions and this is still present in the Arabic music. Some of the most famous Arabian musicians are Dalida, Abdel Halim Hafez, Khaled and Nancy Ajram. Instruments used in the Arabian music genre are the ‘oud, qanoun, nay, santour, zourna, doumbek and many more. The most important arabian musician from the 20th century are singer and composer Sayyid Darwish, who is also called the Arabian Schubert. Another famous musician from the 20th century is Abdu-I-Wahhab, who wasn’t only famous because of his singing career, but he was also a productive composer. He introduced different western classic and popular music into the Arabian music industry, because of that he made an indelible mark on what we call the Arab music. Arab music is divided into several regional and traditional styles like de Nawba-traditions in North-Africa and the wasla in Egypt and Syria . Modern genres that are more regional is the Algerian rai, with Cheb Khaled and Al-Jil as the most important interpreters.